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Colin Judge: Testing structural materials in Idaho’s newest hot cell facility
Idaho National Laboratory’s newest facility—the Sample Preparation Laboratory (SPL)—sits across the road from the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF), which started operating in 1975. SPL will host the first new hot cells at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) in 50 years, giving INL researchers and partners new flexibility to test the structural properties of irradiated materials fresh from the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) or from a partner’s facility.
Materials meant to withstand extreme conditions in fission or fusion power plants must be tested under similar conditions and pushed past their breaking points so performance and limitations can be understood and improved. Once irradiated, materials samples can be cut down to size in SPL and packaged for testing in other facilities at INL or other national laboratories, commercial labs, or universities. But they can also be subjected to extreme thermal or corrosive conditions and mechanical testing right in SPL, explains Colin Judge, who, as INL’s division director for nuclear materials performance, oversees SPL and other facilities at the MFC.
SPL won’t go “hot” until January 2026, but Judge spoke with NN staff writer Susan Gallier about its capabilities as his team was moving instruments into the new facility.
Takashi Hosoma, Masanori Aritomi, Tsunemichi Kawa
Nuclear Technology | Volume 129 | Number 2 | February 2000 | Pages 218-235
Technical Paper | Reprocessing | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3058
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Excess pressure caused by the bubble and the pressure shift resulting from the air column in a dip-tube pressure measurement are the error sources to be considered for highly accurate density, level, and volume determination of plutonium nitrate solution in a tank. A new approach to estimate the maximum, the minimum, and the average of oscillating excess pressure as a function of tube diameter d, solution density , and surface tension without including height, curvature, and amplitude of the bubble is proposed. This approach can be applied without reducing the rate of downward airflow that is necessary to prevent contamination. When the estimates were compared with the experimental results in a water-ethanol system within the range 3.6 × 10-6 /(g) 7.4 × 10-6 (m2) and 1.8 d(g/)1/2 9.6, the mean of the difference was <2 Pa. The estimate for the maximum excess pressure was also compared with the conventional formula, and the difference was <1 Pa. We also proposed an equation to estimate the surface tension of the plutonium nitrate solution. For the pressure shift, a new formula assuming that the air density varies exponentially in the tube is proposed. The measured differential pressure is proportional to the hydrostatic pressure, and the coefficient is nearly independent of the liquid level. These correction factors of excess pressure and pressure shift can practically be given as constants.
